League Notes

ESPN.com's Phil Sheridan wrote when it comes to rules against PEDs, "the NFL’s system works." It works for the league, which "gets to suspend a few players each year and maintain the illusion that it is doing everything possible to crack down on PED use." It works for fans who want to "enjoy the games without thinking too much about the long-term damage being done to the men who play them." It works most of all for the players, as the NFLPA has "proved that its main concern is ever-escalating salaries and not protecting the health of its membership" (ESPN.com, 7/7).

WHO'LL STOP THE RAIN? The AP's Jenna Fryer wrote under the header, "NASCAR Made Right Call To Pull Plug at Daytona." The entire weekend at Daytona Int'l Speedway was "plagued by rain," and when the Coke Zero 400 finally did begin Sunday, it went a "whopping six laps before the cars went back to pit road for another 25-minute delay." Then there was "a 16-car crash seconds before a scheduled competition caution, and a 26-car crash before another shower." Fryer: "It would have been comedic if it wasn’t such a disastrous day for one of the biggest events on the NASCAR schedule. So pulling the plug seemed like such a logical decision" (AP, 7/7).

BATTLE OF THE SEXES: SI.com’s Jon Wertheim wrote he is “for equal prize money” on the men’s and women’s sides at Wimbledon. For “practical reasons, the positive image and message of inclusion conveyed by paying equal wages has value.” But "we should stop kidding ourselves about the economics.” The WTA “has an inferior television deal” to that of the ATP. The women's final at the Australian Open “has not sold out in recent years while the men's final has been a full house and a scalper's bonanza.” At mixed ATP/WTA events such as the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, there is “equal prize money for the players, but the WTA then has to reimburse the tournament for marketing and media shortcomings” (SI.com, 7/6).